While I was making my ice cream today (post to follow), I was left with three unused egg whites in a bowl. Not wanting to be wasteful, I channelled the late great Chief Joseph who reminded me that Native Americans eat every part of the buffalo. I, in turn, would eat every part of the egg. I would make meringues.
“Sissy,” said Chief Joseph.
I dumped the egg whites into the mixing bowl:
I then followed a recipe I printed out on Epicurious. (The recipe called for two egg whites, so I found another recipe that called for three to figure out the proportion of sugar).
Anyway, I whipped until soft peaks formed:
I took soft peak to mean that the whites dangled off the end of the mixing impliment without standing up on their own.
Then I added 7 Tbs of sugar (which turned out to be too much, I think) and mixed until hard peaks formed:
Notice the elegant sheen.
Then you dollup a teaspoons worth into little kisses on a floured, buttered cookie sheet. I took teaspoon to mean mega Tablespoonfull and had complicated results because of that:
See with the teaspoon scenario, they bake at 200 degrees for 45 minutes. With the portions I used, they came out crazy gross. Like gooey gummy and disturbingly chewy. And definitely not cooked enough.
So I put them back in the oven at 200 degrees and cooked them for a half hour more. Then they came out basically good:
I liked that they didn’t cost me anything. And I like that they’re not that bad for you: just egg whites and sugar.
“And don’t forget,” says Chief Joseph, “you conserved every part of the egg.”
“True,” I say.
“Sissy.”
Whether or not these little treats are bad for you or not depends on who you talk to. For an individual trying to follow a low-fat diet, sure. But devotees of the ultra-now South Beach and Atkins Diets would shriek and cower upon being confronted with a the high sugar content (and thus high carb content) of these little meringues.
I’m just sayin’.
But you definitely get points for conservation! Unless you threw them all in the trash late last night, which is what I suspect you did. ;)